The Newsroom (TV Series)

Oh Shenandoah (2014)

Jon Bass: Bree Dorrit

Quotes 

• Sloan Sabbith : In a post today, a citizen journalist tells us that Jimmy Kimmel was visibly intoxicated last night in the Soho House in West Hollywood.

  Bree Dorrit : That's right.

  Sloan Sabbith : Jimmy Kimmel was with his family in Cabo San Lucas last night.

  Bree Dorrit : People don't read this with the expectation of it being true. Everyone's...

  Sloan Sabbith : Excuse me?

  Bree Dorrit : Everyone...

  Sloan Sabbith : People don't have an expectation that what they're reading is true?

  Bree Dorrit : They read it for the immediacy.

  Sloan Sabbith : But you're using the word "journalism", which means that there is an expectation that what they're reading is true. But let me take it a step further. Let's pretend it was true, that Jimmy Kimmel was intoxicated last night at the Soho House in West Hollywood. It's not true, but we don't care, so let's pretend it is, since that's what we're doing anyway. Why does that belong on our website?

  Bree Dorrit : Honestly, I think there is a shifting definition of what's public and private space.

  Sloan Sabbith : There is, and we should care about that. But my question is: why should we care about a talk show host drinking at a bar?

  Bree Dorrit : Don't you think it's great that we're not putting people up on a pedestal and worshiping them anymore?

  Sloan Sabbith : I don't think celebrities are one of the bigger problems facing us, but aren't we the ones building the pedestal?

• Sloan Sabbith : You've got a map that gives us their location.

  Bree Dorrit : The idea is that we are acknowledging that they're real people.

  Sloan Sabbith : I wonder how many of us didn't already know that. But you're doing more than acknowledging they're real people, you're beating them up for it.

  Bree Dorrit : Aren't they protected by the piles of money they're surrounded by?

  Sloan Sabbith : Okay. What's the line of demarcation? You make over x dollars a year, and now you get to be treated by us as a regular person who's basically had an electronic bracelet slapped on their ankle. What does x equal?

  Bree Dorrit : It would be silly to name an exact dollar amount.

  Sloan Sabbith : You're paid $55,000 dollars a year.

  Bree Dorrit : Well, that's private!

  Sloan Sabbith : Sorry. But that's almost twice the national average for a family of four. Do your piles of cash protect you from this interview in which I'm intentionally stripping you of your dignity? And by the way, I've managed to do it without lying once. So I'm going to give you another chance to answer my question before I answer it myself: What's the value of an unsourced, unvetted story about a grown man drinking at a bar?

  [Bree stares at her in shock] 

  Sloan Sabbith : I can't give you all the time in the world, it's entertainment. My concern isn't for the celebrities, even though as sure as we're sitting here, someone is gonna get hurt. My concern is for the rest of us, who you're turning into a wild pack of prideless punks. That's news night for June 24th. I'm Sloan Sabbith, filling in for Will McAvoy. Terry Smith is up next with the Capital Report.

• Sloan Sabbith : And we're joined now by Bree Dorrit, Editor of ACN Digital and Father of the Engage app. Thanks for joining us, Bree.

  Bree Dorrit : Hi, Sloan.

  Sloan Sabbith : We saw it in some of the package we just played, but tell us about Engage.

  Bree Dorrit : It's a map that tells you where celebrities have been sighted in New York and Los Angeles, and soon we'll be expanding to Vegas and South Beach. Anytime you want, you can scroll around and see, you know, Jude Law was shopping for condoms at Duane Reade on 57th or...

  Sloan Sabbith : So people are out there, and they can post a message to us and say "Kristen Bell and her kid are at the 4pm showing of How to Train Your Dragon at the Arc Light?"

  Bree Dorrit : And it goes right on our map instantly.

  Sloan Sabbith : So that when Kristen Bell and her kid come out of the movies, there are a dozen sociopaths waiting for them?

  Bree Dorrit : [chuckles nervously]  I don't think that's likely.

  Sloan Sabbith : Why not?

  Bree Dorrit : Well, it's the price of fame, isn't it?

  Sloan Sabbith : No, it's not. It's a punishment for it.

• Bree Dorrit : That app's driving a lot of traffic.

  Don Keefer : I don't care if it's driving in the Grand Prix of Monaco. I need you to temporarily take it down.